A Political Solution to the Crisis is Possible and Urgent
US President Donald Trump’s threatening statements regarding the DPRK and its missile tests this week are a serious danger to peace in the region and in the world.
President Trump and his administration are not the world’s policeman, and have no right to threaten “punishment” of the DPRK or overthrow of the DPRK’s government.
Nor do they have any right to threaten peace and stability in the region with ultimatums of war, and provocations such as Operation Decapitation carried out with the support of South Korea and Japan several weeks ago, and this week’s flyover the South China Sea by two US Lance bombers.
It is rich indeed that the US, the only country to have ever used nuclear weapons, and the country with the largest nuclear weapons stash in the world, is threatening one of the smallest and poorest countries in the world – impoverished as a result of the US war in Korea which has never ended, and has artificially divided the Korean peninsula along the 1953 ceasefire demarcation line – for the crime of defending itself against threats of foreign invasion and coup d’état.
To de-escalate the crisis, the US must end its provocations, withdraw it massive military build-up in South Korea, end the US war on Korea which began in 1950 and allow reunification to proceed on the Korean Peninsula according to the right of the Korean people to self-determination and sovereignty free of external threats and provocations.
This is the only road to long-term peace and security.
The US’ escalating actions aimed to provoke both Pyongyang and China are the road to war. They are a pretext for a US strike against Pyongyang with all of the horrendous consequences that would ensue.
Further, US efforts to involve China should raise warning flags everywhere. Is China the main target of US provocations and war-mongering?
The great danger to peace and security today is the US administration which has already launched military strikes against Syria and Afghanistan, aided in the soft coups against progressive governments in Latin America and the current attempted coup against the popular government of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, and threatened the government of Cuba – all in the first 20 weeks of Trump’s presidency. This is a significant escalation over the aggressive policies of the Obama administration.
Peace loving peoples in Canada, and globally, must say no to US aggression now, before war is started – accidentally or by order of the US President.
This includes the peace forces in Canada, which have yet to respond, while the Liberal government has willingly jumped on the Trump train to war. This includes sending Canadian troops to Syria, Afghanistan, Latvia, and Africa; increasing military spending by 70%; committing 2% of annual GDP to NATO. PM Trudeau’s election commitment to peace-keeping has been thrown out the window, while the PM’s references to leaders of DPRK as “crazy” come straight from Donald Trump’s speech-writers. How much more Canadian foreign policy will come to Ottawa from the Trump hotel suite?
We call on the labour and democratic movements, and the pace movement in the first place to say NO to WAR – and YES to peace, peaceful coexistence, mutual security and disarmament.
The alternative is mutual assured destruction.
Central Executive Committee
Communist Party of Canada